As always, TIME's editors will choose the Person of the Year, but that doesn't mean readers shouldn't have their say. Cast your vote for the person you think most influenced the news this year for better or worse. Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 12, and the winner of our reader poll will be announced on Dec. 13. TIME's Person of the Year will be announced Dec. 19

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In the post-Citizens United era, Sheldon Adelson became the public face of what critics cast as a plutocrat class trying to buy U.S. elections. But it's not clear how much the conservative casino magnate got for his money  other than a heap of bad press. Adelson, 79, and his wife spent some $53 million to back Republican candidates, staking Newt Gingrich's underfunded presidential bid before forking over a big bet on GOP nominee Mitt Romney. After Barack Obama won re-election despite those efforts, Adelson  a strong supporter of Israel and Jewish causes, whose fortune Forbes pegs at some $20 billion  shrugged off the checks as the price of doing business. "Paying bills," he told a Norwegian reporter. "That's how you spend money."